This substance is known by druggists under different names, according to its purity, rather than from any essential difference in the article itself. The best Calabrian manna is imported in oblong, light, and crumbly flakes or pieces of whitish or pale yellow colour, and somewhat transparent appearance. The inferior sorts are moist, unctuous, and of darker colour.
Manna is a mild and agreeable laxative medicine, particularly with the addition of a little cinnamon water, or other warm aromatic: and it is useful in asthmatic complaints, as well as in inflammatory affections of the breast. It is sometimes counterfeited by a composition of sugar and honey, mixed with a small portion of scammony.
The miraculous substance mentioned in the Old Testament by the name of manna, cannot, of course, be considered to have any alliance whatever with the manna thus produced. This remark would not have been made, did not young persons sometimes inconsiderately confound the two substances.
276. The ASH-TREE (Fraxinus excelsior, Fig. 79) is a well-known British tree, with winged leaves; the leaflets in four or five pairs, with an odd one, serrated, and without footstalks; and the flowers without petals.
Of late years this valuable tree has been much planted in several parts of England. It is of hardy nature, and thrives even in barren soils. If planted in moist situations, the roots, spreading wide in every direction near the surface, have a tendency to render the ground dry and firm. The timber, which has the rare advantage of being nearly as good when young as when old, is white, and so hard and tough as generally to be esteemed next in value to oak. It is much used by coach-makers, wheel-wrights, and cart-wrights; and is made into ploughs, axle-trees, felloes of wheels, harrows, ladders, and other implements of husbandry. It is likewise used by ship-builders for various purposes, and by coopers for the hoops of tubs and barrels. Where, by frequent cutting, the wood has become knotty, irregular, and veined, it is in much request for cabinet-work by mechanics on the Continent. The best season for felling ash-trees is from November to February. As fuel, this tree burns better whilst wet and green than other wood.
We are informed that, in the northern parts of Lancashire, when grass is scarce, the small farmers frequently cut off the tops of ash-trees to feed their cows with the leaves and tender branches; but these are said to spoil the taste of the milk. Mr. Pennant states that, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the inhabitants of Colton and Hawkshead-Fells remonstrated against the number of forges then lately erected in that part of the country, because they consumed the loppings of the trees, which formed the sole winter food for their cattle. The leaves of ash-trees were formerly much used in the adulteration of tea, under the name of smouch; but this practice has of late been prohibited by act of parliament.
The bark of the ash-tree is employed in the tanning of calf-skins, and sometimes in dyeing black and other colours. The inner bark has been proposed as a substitute for Peruvian bark, in the cure of intermittent fevers.
277. EBONY is the wood of a species of palm-tree (Diospiros ebenum), which grows in the island of Ceylon, and has smooth, leathery, oblong, and pointed leaves, and rough-haired buds.
The black and valuable substance known to us by the name of ebony, is the centre part only of the trees. The outside wood is white and soft, and either decays soon, or is destroyed by insects, which leave the black part untouched. Ebony is imported into this country from the East Indies. It is exceedingly hard and heavy, admits of being highly polished, and is principally used by cabinet-makers and inlayers for the veneering of cabinets and other ornamental work. The wood of the pear-tree, stained black, is frequently substituted for ebony.
The ripe fruit of the ebony tree is eaten by the natives of Ceylon; but it is astringent, and not very palatable.